New York, NY -- Better fur-trimmed leather maker Dero is not known for producing a high-profile designer line. But for this family-owned and operated company, that's just fine, thank you; it takes its inspiration from its customers and has all it can do to handle growth spurts in recent years.
Dero has built its reputation on embellishments -- beading, sequins, passamenterie -- on leather, along with pleated sleeves and lush fur trims. Specialty retailers such as Nordstrom and Cachˇ also rely on Dero for its domestic production, quality and value.
"They market to a particular customer," explains Shelly Dunlevy, Nordstrom's Midwest buyer of Gallery-section coats, where Dero coats perform well. "They offer great fit, good styling and competitive prices, and the fact that they carry embellishments while others do not means they fill a certain niche," Dunlevy explained, adding that the best-selling Dero coat at Nordstrom's in the Chicago area during the fourth quarter was the classic Dero pleated-sleeve coat with fox trim; prior to that last year it was a leather baseball jacket.
Company principals Anna Maria and Rocco D'Amelio function as the design team, and this spring they've added 50 to 100 new styles, to bring their total number of leather and fur-trimmed leather garment samples to at least 200. But this is not a strong top-down, seasonal designer collection. Occupying their own New York-based factory, the family produces new design ideas year-round, on a weekly basis.
Sandro D'Amelio, vice president, points out, "All of our thinking and planning comes from our customers. We don't custom-make garments, but retailer demand definitely influences production. Designing is one thing, but a company also needs to take their customers into account."
In fact, with such a wide variety of outerwear and ready-to-wear, the collection seems designed to sell. That's one reason why, this year, Dero is tipping its hat to minimalist fashion, adding a selection of simple, sophisticated styles to its mix.
Those include basics in all colors, such as a clean trench without fur, pearlized shades of bronze, pewter, bone and black, an anorak with mink trim, a long simple wrap coat with fox collar and cuffs, 3/4 jackets with fur-trimmed hood, a new mod chain-link detailing and more.
Dero shrugs off advances by other leather makers to invade its territory by creating similar, embellished styles. Flattered, Sandro D'Amelio says, "There are people out there who want my merchandise, and I can't get it to them. We had a family meeting recently, where we discussed our growth and how we could improve it even more."
Their conclusion: improve service. They've added staff, regional offices, are exhibiting at more trade fairs and are planning to expand their New York showroom. "Our company is almost 16 years old. My father, who is the heart of our business as ceo, always thought that we Ń my mother, sister, he and I -- were capable of handling it all ourselves. But then we kept getting more phone calls from people all over the country who wanted to see the line, and we couldn't always get it to them."
D'Amelio's fiancˇ, Bari Berman, has joined the New York showroom. She was formerly a sales associate for Tadashi on Seventh Avenue. (Look for their wedding on July 13.) In Los Angeles, Dero added a showroom run by Jamie Connoly; a Chicago location is being finalized, and Dero has taken a showroom in Dallas, which is currently being run on a part-time basis by Anna Maria D'Amelio. A permanent staff member will be hired shortly.
One of the reasons for Dero's growth could be its fledgling marketing efforts. "Buyers could go anywhere for basic leathers," says D'Amelio. "But they come to us, partly because we're developing name recognition."
At Nordstrom, Shelly Dunlevy says customers do come in and ask for a certain popular silhouette done by Dero, and sometimes they ask for the maker by name.
Dero took a first step in pursuing that recognition last fall, when it participated in a co-op advertisement in Vogue magazine with Cachˇ. "It was our first consumer ad," says D'Amelio. "Business boomed afterward." He plans to expand that effort in '96 with three to four co-op ads in Vogue during the October-December selling season.
